Gan has high hopes

He may have only played three Hyundai A-League matches, but Sydney's rising star Brendan Gan already wants more.

He may have only played three Hyundai A-League matches, but Sydney's rising star Brendan Gan already wants more.

Gan shot to prominence two weeks ago when he came on as a substitute and scored the winner against the Jets and he was rewarded with his first full 90 minutes last Saturday against the Mariners.

With his first full match under his belt, the youngster's motivation is at an all time high and he wants to keep it that way.

"I want to be a professional footballer. My motivation has sky-rocketed now, I just want to be in the team every single week," he said.

“With such quality players around me it's going to be hard to get a spot so I've got to perform every training and every game, so that's what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the season and hopefully the rest of my career.”

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the midfielder though, with his miscued ball back towards his own goal opening the door for the Mariners to open the scoring early in the match.

But he showed great character to regroup and put in an impressive overall effort.

"It was definitely disappointing to have something like that happen but I think to be a good footballer, you've got get those sort of things out of your head and look forward to what you can do better and how you can help resurrect the game," he said.

"It was good because I had the older boys around me encouraging me. I'm always going to get out there and try and do my best so with something like that, I'm going to want to get back in the game and try and give that pass or make that goal or make that extra run to help the team lift."

Despite the disappointing error, Sydney coach John Kosmina was still very happy with the performance of the 20-year-old.

"Great performance, it was exactly what we wanted. He got forward, he worked hard, he got lots of tackles in. He did more than enough for me to be happy," Kosmina said after the match.

Sydney will be looking to return to the top four this weekend when it welcomes Perth Glory to the Sydney Football Stadium.